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All Guns Blazing

The Imperial War Museum’s quarrel with its Friends will weaken its support

There has been some ominous friendly fire from the great guns stationed outside the Imperial War Museum. The broadside, aimed at the museum’s Friends organisation, has already caused widespread casualties among once cordial links, and now threatens to destroy an alliance between the five institutions making up the IWM and the 5,000 footsoldiers who raise money, arrange membership and wave the flag for the 100-year-old museum, Britain’s national record of the First World War and all subsequent armed conflicts.

At issue is the attempt by Diane Lees, the museum’s director-general, to dissolve the independent Friends charity and bring fundraising and membership subscriptions in-house, as other publicly funded museums have done recently. Her proposals to merge the two organisations were rebuffed this year, and she is…